Zenera Riverwatch
"The Darkness is patient, but in the end... it always loses."- ''Zenera, upon the deaths of the Dorne Brothers. '''Zenera Riverwatch '''is a red-headed half-elf female Battlemaster who led the Hags of Longwall resistance group alongside Tar'Djin Ful'Korn against the Triumvirate. History Childhood and Teenage Years Zenera was born to an elven mother (unknown) and a human father (Jim Riverwatch). Zenera's mother apparently left her when she was young, leaving Jim to look after her by himself. Despite this challenge, he seems to have done a fine job raising his half-elf daughter. From an early age, Zenera was interested in sword fighting. She began training with Silvaven Siros at a young age, and settled on the Butterfly Style, a quick and deadly style of combat that requires extreme dexterity and skill, with certain display of elven accuracy. She trained alongside her closest friend, Hazel Riverwatch, who trained in the style of the arcane blade. Together, they felt they were unstoppable. They left the town of Roigerdam together, hoping to seek a new life of adventure in a less prejudiced town. Unfortunately, only Zenera returned after a dangerous encounter. The Battle of the Twin Palaces In the house of Braeli Mearlshine, Audri Camden was murdered with Adult Bronze Viper venom. Mearlshine, being the prime suspect, attempted to draw suspicion away from himself by claiming Zenera had committed the crime for her father Jim, who was a business rival to the deceased. While she was innocent, Zenera knew that most of the justice system in the city did not favour those of elvish descent, so she fled to the Undercity to hide. She was eventually found by the Balgurn Ironaxe, but was saved from arrest by Supreme Justice Xar'Bil, who allowed her 24 hours to clear her name. She promptly confronted Braeli Mearlshine, who denied being the killer. Investigating the murder of Audri Camden led the group to Tara'Kara Tav'Arj, Mearlshine's assistant, who was part of ANOTHER plot orchestrated by Xar'Bil himself to assassinate Lady Roiger. Zenera and her friends, Victor Dorne and Gorbo, ran to the palace, disposing of a group of guards en route, where they found Lady Roiger bound and poisoned by none other than Teclis Bloodhorn, infamous assassin. After a lengthy battle of blades and wits, Teclis emerged the winner, but he was weakened too much by Dragonbane's strikes to save himself from the knife of Xar'Bil, who tied up the last loose end in his plan. Unfortunately, Xar'Bil's treachery was revealed by Saran to the whole city, and he was promptly arrested by the guard. Zenera and her friends were revived by the lynch mob, and they celebrated their 'win.' It was almost tragic that Xar'Bil was in the right, in his own warped way, as he only tried to kill Roiger due to her racist administration. Grand Mother Koebelle After saving the city, Zenera and her friends gained some fame amongst the people of Roiger, so when a deceased auction popped up in the city centre and Victor spotted the idol he had been searching for, he attempted to use his newfound clout to get the idol back. Unfortunately for him, the auctioneer, Moeben Ercen, was a stickler for the rules and eventually sold the idol to Grand Mother Koebelle of the Church of Flaviarte. Victor attempted to chase her down, but she retreated into the Church and closed the doors. Victor noticed during the chase that she had abnormal strength and an aversion to sunlight. When he confronted Lady Roiger with the fact that Koebelle may be a vampire, she laughed it off, saying Koebelle was merely a "Glampire". She also revealed that the Priestesses of Flaviarte were also prostitutes, further muddying the investigation. Nevertheless, Victor pursued Koebelle. Roiger relented, and told them of an access route below the Church, through the brothel. Of course, Victor did not like this, but he led Zenera and Gorbo up through the bowels of the Church to a large acoustics hall. They witnessed Koebelle snap a child's neck, while standing beside Victor's friend, Mother Neriel, who happened to be undead now. Yes, Koebelle was definitely a Vampire. In the ensuing fight, all of the heroes were gravely injured, with Victor getting bitten on the neck. They seemed to be making headway against the monster, until Gorbo fell, followed by Victor, the Vampire's dark venom flowing through their veins, slowing their heartbeat more and more... But with a mighty blow from Dragonbane, Zenera killed the monster in a flash of light. She then managed to revive Gorbo and Victor, where they stumbled into the Church and were saved by the soon-to-be Grand Mother Castaline, a real priestess, not a vampiric monster. The Golem Pit After defeating Koebelle, Gorbo wandered into Roiger, crumbling to pieces, before being kidnapped by the town's golem defense force. Zenera was tasked by Kromus to hunt down Gorbo and bring him back. Zenera ran through the true depths of Roiger, past the Damworks and into the Golem Production Facility, where she barely saved Gorbo from being melted down. She managed to scare the Golems into leaving her alone, before returning to the surface triumphantly. If not for her, Gorbo would be dead. Or worse- he might have lived but no longer would have been Gorbo... The Death of Xar'bil Tav'Arj As the trial of Xar'Bil drew nearer and Zenera and Victor feared for a potential assassination of Xar'Bil by the new Supreme Justice (Moeben Ercen). Despite Zenera's warnings, and after a chilling revelation that Ercen was not the true leader of Roigerdam, Xar'Bil's speech was not cancelled nor was Xar'Bil saved. The true leader of Roigerdam was a Dwarven man known as Skirn Coaltooth. Coaltooth had Xar'Bil killed and set Ercen up to die in the oncoming mob. A colossal Ironjaw Golem attacked the rampaging crowd, and Zenera was caught on the wrong side of the horde. She instead confronted the Ballista Golem that had killed Xar'bil, and defeated it with the help of Gareb MacMaddacain, and Silvaven Siros. She charged through the crowd, firing arrows at the Iron Golem, only stopping once to shield her father Jim Riverwatch from a brutal flamethrower spat out by the Golem. The behemoth itself was felled by a brutal blow from Victor Dorne, smashing through its Iron head to destroy it once and for all. The battle had been won, but at a cost. Five young children were felled in the frenzy, and not because of the Iron Golem. The backswing from Gorbo's frenzied attacks caused the deaths of five children, and brutally wounded a sixth. With the deaths of innocents on his conscience and the tears flowing from his eyes, Gorbo fled in shame from Roigerdam, with his own ever fainter screams fading behind him. ''"MONSTER!..." With this tragedy, Victor and Zenera left Roigerdam, heading for Sterling. Victor planned to return his idol to Sterling so his long quest would finally be fulfilled. Personality Zenera is a very confident, fearless individual with great pride behind her abilities. Before Hazel's disappearance, she was too proud and overconfident. Ashamed of her failure to protect her friend, Zenera withdrew into the Undercity to train. Her old habits resurfaced when she was framed for the murder of Audri Camden, drawing her back into the world above and helping her regain herself. She still remained very vigilant, never giving trust to anyone without knowing that they wouldn't betray her. Unfortunately, once she trusted someone, she naively wouldn't suspect them of betrayal, leading to several eye-openers, namely Braeli Mearlshine and Xar'Bil Tav'Arj. She still harbours this severe mistrust of strangers and blind trust towards allies. However, once betrayed, Zenera becomes a guided missile of pure vengeance, hunting down her former ally relentlessly and pushing herself beyond her limits in pursuit of retribution. This occurred in the Xar'Bil incident, in which her anger nearly got the sick-and-already-injured Gorbo killed in the battle against Teclis Bloodhorn after he was tired out in the chase through the city and previous fights. Relationships Kromus and Zenera Kromus Selenus had dreams that allowed him to see into the future, and when he decided to leave his friends to pursue a cure for his condition, he made sure to give this gift to Gorbo, his closest friend after the death of Lothric. Unfortunately, he got very drunk before performing the ritual, and accidentally gave the power to Zenera on the night after she saved Lady Roiger from Xar'Bil. Now Zenera has dreams that show her glimpses of the future, which could shape the balance of her life to come. Hazel and Zenera From an early age, Hazel Riverwatch was Zenera's best friend. While they shared a similar last name, they were not actually related, due to the Riverwatch name being a Roigerdam standard for orphans. While Zenera's name had been passed down through her family from the original orphaned Riverwatch, Hazel had not revealed whether she was an orphan or not. When Zenera and Hazel attempted to leave Roiger for a better place, Hazel was kidnapped by slavers. Zenera blames herself for her failure to protect her. Victor and Zenera Victor- "Ahhhh... you gotta get idols... Of Pyrus... Flaviarte and...." Zenera- "Rokkette, and they all have to be facing South in a Pentagram" Victor- "Oh! ...The most important part... You need John, Paul, George and Ringo!" '' Victor and Zenera were equally intelligent (with a score of 10) and were able to hold better conversations than Gorbo. As such, they were close friends. In some ways, they were almost like two parents looking after a single child (Gorbo). However, their relationship was purely platonic. After they both became heavily intoxicated, they stumbled back through the streets of Roigerdam, providing "purely factual" directions to the Undercity to those who would ask politely. Zenera understood Victor's devotion to Pyrus, and manages Victor's finances for him. This was because Victor could not carry selfish material possessions. Gorbo and Zenera ''"Gorbo is not a Golem. Gorbo is Gorbo." -Zenera, destroying a Roiger Golem's view of reality. Despite Gorbo's intimidating form, Zenera was usually the one who ends up saving him from certain destruction. So far, she has had to save him from: * Grand Mother Koebelle * The Roigerdam Golem Production facility * Teclis Bloodhorn * Himself (Multiple times) Despite this, she and Gorbo were close friends, watching each other's backs in combat and in the highly aggressive city of Roigerdam. Dragonbane Zenera is apparently part of a long line of Riverwatch blacksmiths who have worked on a legendary weapon- Dragonbane. A brutal longsword with unknown magical properties, it was claimed that Dragonbane had never been used in battle. Until now. As a last resort in a battle against Teclis Bloodhorn, Zenera deployed Dragonbane. Although it did not seem to have any noticeable combat effect, but Zenera swore that it sharpened itself as she drew it. It was later on that Zenera revealed more of its power, using it to great effect against Grand Mother Koebelle, a Vampire that had infiltrated the Church of Flaviarte. She noticed that whenever the monster was hit, a flash of light would appear and it would recoil in agony. Afterwards, she realized that if not for this extra power, the monster would have killed her and her friends. Effects * Deals 1xd8 damage, plus proficiency and any further bonuses. * Against undead, is known to deal an additional 1xd4 radiant damage. * It may have further effects, as hinted at by Silvaven Siros. * In the hands of Zenera, this weapon deals 1xd8 +7 (+1xd4) damage on a normal swing, maxing out at 52 damage on a critical manoeuvre attack on a Vampire.